“When the Smoke Clears”
The sound of bullets and
screams…
The echoes of now permanent
memories
The smell of smoke and death…
The fear of feeling
completely helpless
But when the smoke clears…
When everyone wants to move
onto another dose of insanity
the youth are the engine of change and
possibility
They won’t take no from
someone who can’t answer honestly
They are fearless and brave
in the face of a violence that doesn’t want to change
Young people lead revolutions
when adults make excuses
and take cash to avoid solutions
They show us the way
Maybe
that’s because they are the most invested
in choosing our direction
The future is theirs
they
want to protect it
They started long ago
and they’re still marching
When we needed equality
when
we needed to vote
when we need our rights
they’ll walk down that road
The youth give me hope…
they always
lead the way
in fashion and art
but now they lead with passionate hearts
I've thought about praying
until your indifference
started preying
upon my thoughts
It’s not stealing if you don't get caught
but you've been
caught red handed
with the blood of your constituents
dripping from your
wallets
Do you have change for a
dollar
and a generation?
Do you have enough compassion
for common sense legislation?
How about we react with substance
can you change a chilling sensation
into one of progress
Instead of running
from another
horrific injustice
where the victims died for nothing
but your corruption
When the smoke clears…
you'll have the rest
of your life in purgatory
to enjoy your blood money
Your cowardice and inaction
helped
kill the innocent
Do you have any regrets?
You deserve the long, overdue
pink slips
you’re gonna get
The future has come to make
you history
you see
Tomorrow has gotten tired of
how today has to be
now it’s arrived
in order to serve the community
To try to find a way
to stop
turning schools into cemeteries
towns into funeral
processions
it keeps happening
we keep asking the same questions
and hiding from the answers
every death another lesson
every day like before
Conflict arrives
when you
pick donations over lives
money talks
but our
voices
are worth more!
Now the kids are the leaders
and the leaders are the kids
and the kids are doing more
than the leaders ever did
From Ferguson
to Flint
Florida
to Connecticut
the kids weren’t invited
they were dragged in
and when progress isn't made
the youth get involved
get engaged
That’s when you know things
are gonna change
and one of these days
they’re gonna change
Even if our youth has to lead
this parade
start the next progressive wave
Can you blame someone for
wanting to remake a world that fails
them
by those who are supposed to protect them
who instead neglect them
tell us we’re all in this together
but then
show us
it's everyone for themselves
scapegoat every mass shooting on mental health
but
not every bad person is insane
some are angry
some just hate
Some apples are just bad
that's like me saying that every villain
is a Republican
While some of that is true
some come in shades of blue
Absolutes are never comfortable
in a free country
because they can’t get past the irony
Of an open mind…
embracing arbitrary
words
in these open times
where everybody dies
you have trouble hearing the
truth
because you worship your own lies
or you twisted the meaning to
mean
all we need are good guys…
to fight back against the element of
surprise
Guns kill
that's what they
do
we can talk about the people who use them
but you can't ignore the bloody
truth
We could never get this far
this low
this wounded
without you
When we decided long ago
to accept
these instruments of death
that didn’t mean we had to
make them easy to get
to infect
to spread
Weapons of war don’t belong under
our beds
they shouldn’t be a prescription for the walking dead
Nor a reason for representatives
to cash in and forget the reasons they’ve been sent
They’ve spent their terms voting against us
it’s time we returned the favor
give walking papers
to every
single one
One day
the smoke is gonna clear
but it won’t be from a gun.
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